Case 5-Asia-China-Hongshan-Bi Disk-4 Notch-4 Serrations-Celadon Silicate-3500-2200 BCE

Figs. 1-3. China-Hongshan-Bi Disk-4 Notch-4 Serrations-Celadon Silicate-3500-2200 BCE

Case no.: 5

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Formal Label: China-Hongshan-Bi Disk-4 Notch-4 Serrations-Celadon Silicate-3500-2200 BCE

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In contrast to the Graeco-Roman and Judaeo-Christian-Muslim notions of the soul of humans as the immaterial (or spiritual) essence of a human Being, the Hongshan people of ancient Northeast Eurasia (also known as Northeast China) regarded the souls of both humans and animals as both immaterial and material. That is, the souls of both were tangible and accessible through psychometry. Secondly, they did not regard humans as ontologically superior to animals but as equals. What follows is a short description of the origins of Hongshan symbolism as it follows from these two standpoints.

1) Transitional Hunter-gatherer / Neolithic cultures of Northeastern Eurasia attest to the beginnings of agriculture by the presence of domesticated phytoliths that were excavated with solely wild faunal remains at four sites at the Nanzhuangtou site (39 N lat). in Xushui County, Hebei (Huang 1966; Yan 1997:, Baoding Institute et al. 1992), at the Yucanyan site in Dao County, Hunan, at 25.5 N lat. and at the Xianrendong and Diaotonghuan sites (28.5 N lat.) in Wannian County, Jiangxi (Yan 1997).

At ca 6,000 BCE Asians with the D haplogroup living in the Yangtze River delta domesticated both wild boars and foxtail millet (Wu et al. 2007). At the Cishan site in Hebei, Wu’an County (36.5 N lat.) (Jing and Flad 2002) burial pits of domesticated wild boars were overlain by charred, domesticated foxtail millet (Jing and Flad 2002; Jing et al. 2008). Domesticated foxtail millet, a C4 plant that cycles CO₂ into four-carbon sugar compounds, is very efficient in hot, dry climates and was an important component of both the human and swine diets (Jing and Flad 2002). The discarded chaff of domesticated cereals appears to have been used to feed wild boars. Domesticated wild boars have been identified by tooth size (lower 3rd molar, L41.4, W 18.3), age at slaughter (> 60%, .5-1 yr.) and archaeological context such as ritual burial of entire skeletons beneath charred foxtail millet.

These Transitional Hunter-gatherers were the emergent Neolithic Hongshan people, who secured economic control over foxtail millet and wild boars and through these sources of productive wealth consolidated their political power. Interestingly, these were speakers of Altaic, a language either pre-Mongolic or Korean but not Sinitic (Blench 2004; but see Guo 1995).

By 6000 BCE the Yangtze River delta had emerged as an area of importance for the development of a dual domesticated boar and foxtail millet economy. Within a Neolithic time-horizon of 6000-2200 BCE a Hongshan Boar Symbolism was developed that was integrated into jade objects produced by élite artisans for political élites which were beyond the reach of commoners. In order to gain the respect of the masses political élites doled out these prestige goods to the commoners not only millet and pork (Flannery 1968, Bradley 1972, Frankenstein and Rowlands 1978, Kristiansen 1991, Saenz 1991) but also jade and silk (Firth 1965; Leach 1970:162-63).

Hongshan Pig-dragon jade carvings from Liaoning (紅山-玉--豬頭龍--建平--遼寧) in Northeast Eurasia are zoomorphic, figurines with a pig-like snout and pointed ears, sometimes fangs, on an elongated, "suggestively fetal” or serpentine, limbless body, coiled around a central axis (see Childs-Johnson 1991). Early Hongshan pig-dragon jade carvings (ca 5000 BCE) have stout, pig-like bodies, while later Hongshan examples (ca 3000 BCE) have slenderer, more serpentine bodies. Since pig-dragon jade carvings have been excavated in Hongshan graves (Howard 2006), and since pig bones have accounted for 60 percent of animal bones recovered from selected Hongshan sites, it is inferred that pigs were important not only for the Hongshan economy but also for their symbolic significance. The melding of a fetal-serpentine shape with that of a pig may have been intended to couple an ancient dragon-serpentine motif with that of an economic icon, thereby producing a powerful Hongshan foundational image.

Sus scrofa domesticus embryo (from Keibel 1897, v. 1, pl. 2, no. 16), with internal organs removed, shows the spinal cord and the cranium which suggests the basis of the shape of the so-called “pig dragons,” the basis of the porcine symbolism in Hongshan jade art.

[Later, when the Shang (ca 2000 BCE) developed a written sign for a dragon , they incorporated several motifs. For instance, the top of the emperor’s tall crown is capped with a dragon’s horn立 that rests on top of 月, which, when turned on its side, portrays a large open mouth with big front teeth > . Next to these two glyphs is which, turned on its side, > depicts a tail , a 4-legged body and a head . The legless Hongshan pig-dragon image had now acquired quadruped status and with it the loss of its ontological meaning.]

2) These sculptures ranged in size from personal amulets to large figures hung in ritual sanctuaries. Their presence was intended to recall the time when these wild boars were first captured in the Mulanshan -- mountains of great, natural wilderness. After these animals were domesticated, the moment was marked at which the Hongshan people emerged from their hunting-gathering past into a Neolithic, sedentary present and their sculptures became provocative reminiscences of their ancient past.

In this Neolithic Hongshan culture the community was obliged to participate in the memory of the ancient ways of hunter-shamans who could assume the personae of the hunted so authentically that the animals would give up their lives that the hunters’ communities could be sustained. To understand the Hongshan self, then, one needs to acknowledge the possibility of shamanic ecstasy, of being able to stand outside of one’s own self and to assume the identities of nature’s Beings without alterity or division. Furthermore, this call to assume an ontological interaction of souls, was also a call to collapse one’s ego in order to contact the Being of the Other. Only this opens a window into one’s own personal identity and one’s own alterity. With it one’s extension of the self into the Beings of nature, both of animals and humans, becomes palpable. There is also the possibility of entering into the realm of psychometry, which enables contact with the ontological essences of so-called inanimate Beings. (Far from being unobtainable, this is practiced by at least 3 billion Christians on Earth when they partake of the bread and wine in holy communion.)

3) Images of Mulanshan were conceived by Hongshan sculptors of jade, the stone of immortality, as rounded summits with burrows of the wild boar as circular hollows within these mountains. Images of the wild boar were sculpted on the ends of these mountains -- with their hollows -- making the identity of the sculpture explicit. Thus, this entire sculpture – boar, mountain and burrow -- became the emblem of the Hongshan essence of life.

4) Hongshan-Liaoning-Porcine Torus-Pig Dragon-Abstract-Jade-4700-2920 BCE

This example of a porcine torus of revolution (note hole for suspension) has an opening that suggestively shows a boar’s jagged teeth. H 5.4 cm, W 5.4 cm, T 2.4 cm. Atlantika Collection.

5) Hongshan-jade-three-hole, double-boar device-with base tenon-4700-2920 BCE

This porcine device has three tori with a suggestive domesticated boar’s head at both ends. The tops of the three tori are considered to be three summits of a mountain range in Liaoning Province that appear like three rounded humps in outline, perhaps home to Sus scrofa or wild boar. Atlantika Collection

6) Hongshan-Jade-Porcine Torus-Open-Boar-4700-2920 BCE

This elliptical porcine torus is open at the front with its “tail” and its blunt snout (suggestively of the non-domesticated Sus scrofa or wild boar) are opposed. To add motion to this more serpentine shape, a flowing mane has been added. Atlantika Collection.

7) Sheep sculptures as Hongshan Culture Expands Trade and Exchange into Mongolia

Sheep sculptures were added by artisans to their porcine repertoire as Hongshan trade and exchange with Mongolian sheep herders developed. This suggests increasing cultural complexity and stability, although the degree of complexity and Hongshan connections to other emergent Neolithic cultures in Mongolia and Central Asia are still under debate (Guo 1985).

Rare mid-late Hongshan sheep sculpture, ca 2500 BCE, Atlantika Collection

8) Climatic fluctuations 4000-2200 BCE: development and demise of the Hongshan culture.

Between 3678-3400 cal. BCE the climate was colder and drier than today. Then, from 3400- 2800 cal. BCE the climate was much warmer and wetter. Between 2800-2300 cal. BCE the climate was persistently cold, with an exceptionally cold event occurring between 2600-2300 cal. BCE. This cold event was recorded at several other localities in Northern China and in the Northern Hemisphere. It played an important role in the emigration of Inner Mongolian people from the Hunshandake Sandy Lands of Inner Mongolia (Yang et al. 2015) to immigrate to the Yangtze River delta and in turn they forced the Hongshan people to emigrate to Taiwan by 2200 BCE, a date that corresponds to the demise of the Hongshan culture which has been an enigma until now (Jin and Liu. 2002).

Map showing location of Hunshandake Sandy Lands outlined in black.

Geographical location of the Hunshandake Sandy Lands (A) and its area (encompassed by red line in B).

The black rectangle in B marks the location of the enlarged maps C and D on the Right, and the green rectangle shows the location of Fig. 2. Map C shows the localities of water samples, and map D shows the localities of stratigraphy The sand–paleosol section P (Fig. 3) is on the southern margin, and the site Bayanchagan marks the coring site to sample the paleosols (Jiang et al. 2006). Rivers with headwaters in the Hunshandake likely formed by groundwater sapping are marked in blue. Drainages to the southwest and west are currently undergoing groundwater sapping, with substantial spring-driven flow found at the current river base level. From https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4311860/figure/fig01/

Map of the desiccation of Holocene lakes and channels in the Hunshandake Sandy Lands at selected epochs (Yang et al. 2015). Upper, middle, and lower lakes are indicated by points A, B, and C, respectively. Xilamulun River (point D) drains to the east. Groundwater-sapping headcuts at the upper reaches of incised canyons (point E) suggest a mid-Holocene interval of easterly surface flow, followed by groundwater drainage beginning at the ca. 4.2 ka event. Northern and central channels at point E are currently abandoned, and groundwater sapping has migrated to the southerly of the three channels shown. (Right) Cross-sections of the predrainage shift, northerly drainage into Dali Lake (Localities shown on the Left), showing the increase in widths of channels downstream (Vertical exaggeration ∼30:1).

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